by James Lapine
First published 2021
James Lapine opens his memoir in 1982, when he first encounters Stephen Sondheim, the legendary Broadway composer nineteen years his senior. Lapine, then at the start of his theatrical career as playwright and director, finds himself embarking on an ambitious creative partnership. The two men decide to craft a musical inspired by Georges Seurat's nineteenth-century painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Their collaboration unfolds over two years of intense creative work, marked by artistic breakthroughs and inevitable setbacks. Through candid conversations with Sondheim and the production team, Lapine reconstructs their creative process using personal photographs, sketches, script notes, and sheet music. The book reveals the intimate dynamics of their friendship and professional relationship as they navigate the challenges of bringing their vision to Broadway. Their journey culminates in Sunday in the Park with George, which becomes a Pulitzer Prize winning musical that defines both their careers.
Genres: drama, art, 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: creative-partnership, found-family
Setting: Broadway, La Grande Jatte
Period: 1982
416 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux